Club that helped launch careers of Olympians – and Jason Statham – hopes London mayor will take the plunge on £1.3m repairs
As the story goes, Jason Statham’s impromptu standing back somersault during a real-life pub lock-in with Guy Ritchie was not only the inspiration for a scene in Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels but also ended up launching his career. “Before all of his fame with the movies and everything, he was a proper diver who trained at Crystal Palace,” recalls Gill Snode, a co-founder of Crystal Palace diving club.
Yet while Statham went all the way to Hollywood after being one of the thousands of promising young athletes who trained at the National Sports Centre, south London’s current crop of divers appears to have been forgotten.